Education and military posts

From 1914 to 1923 he was Assistant Curator of the Canterbury Museum, then he was appointed to the Auckland Institute and Museum in 1924. In the First World War he served in the New Zealand Field Artillery, rising to a captaincy. After serving in World War I he worked at the Canterbury Museum where he studied and published papers on numerous New Zealand fauna. He then became director of the Auckland Institute and Museum in Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, Vol. 4 (1921-1940), updated 22 June 2007. Retrieved 2010-02-04. where he was personally responsible for getting funding from the . In the Second World War he was attached to the British Military Administration in Malaya with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.